Since https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1gdhy7u/experimental_flathub_release_of_newpipe_on_linux/ got a bit of traction yesterday, this is WhatsApp straight from Meta running on Linux desktop using android-translation-layer.

android-translation-layer (ATL) is a Wine-like approach to run Android applications on Linux. Rather than running an Android container like for example Waydroid does this instead implements the Android API. Note that right now it’s very much work in progress and almost no app will work yet, but the fact that they have apps like Newpipe and WhatsApp running already is very promising!

Join the Matrix chat at #android-translation-layer:matrix.org and follow along!

  • killingspark@feddit.orgEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    I’m curious, doesn’t WhatsApp require a phone number to be attached to an account? As in, I thought activating it doesn’t work on devices without a SIM card?

    • balsoft@lemmy.mlEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      I haven’t used it in a while, but I think it just sends you an SMS with a code that you can enter manually, so yeah it works on devices without a SIM

      • 56!@lemmy.ml
        0·
        2 years ago

        Exactly. I created my whatsapp account in waydroid like this.

    • ouch@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 years ago

      Wine was first released in 1993. I hope our children are there to see the take off.

        • deltapi@lemmy.world
          0·
          2 years ago

          There is slightly more openness to androids layers than the win32 layers as well.

          I still remember symlinking to binaries in my windows system folder back in the late 90s to be able to run office 95 under Linux. (The MSFT system files permitted some things to work properly that just didn’t with the wine provided libraries back then)

  • CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.todayEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    This Android Translation Layer looks amazing for Linux phones. Waydroid is already pretty awesome, but it’s just running full fat Android on top of your Linux system and has all the limitations that brings (poor to no notification integration with the host system, poor integration of filesystem, extra resource usage for all of the Android services, issues with power management and suspend, inability to change resolution on the fly, poor integration with host onscreen keyboard, etc). I’ve used Waydroid on postmarketOS and it’s nice to be able to have Android apps available, but it almost feels like still carrying around a second phone, just that second phone is virtual. Something like ATL sounds like it properly integrates Android apps into the host OS. I need to give this a try soon.

    • fl42v@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      We have minecrafts on linux. One useful-ish thing that I can think of (and currently use waidroid for) is myscript’s nebo, a handwritten note-taking app with quite good OCR. Since myscript don’t build their SDK for Linux, let alone apps, it’s somewhat the only way currently, I guess… Unless you can run wpf-s via wine somehow?

      • JamesBoeing737MAX@sopuli.xyzEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        Well, we don’t have bedrock and don’t even think about mcpelauncher (it’s not even foss anymore + licensing bullshit).

  • ouch@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    I hope this makes it easier to do TLS sniffing and security research on Android apps. A lot of developers seem to rely on no one simply looking at how much information is exposed in the APIs apps use. Currently because it’s much more difficult to sniff Android apps, a lot of privacy/security issues are not raised.

  • chevy9294@monero.townEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Looks fantastic but how much are apps sandboxed? I don’t want WhatsApp to see all my files for example.

  • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.comEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Very cool. I’ll stick with a WhatsApp Matrix bridge so I don’t have to install a Meta app, though.